The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is a registered trade union in the United Kingdom for those in the profession of nursing. It was founded in 1916 as the College of Nursing, receiving its royal charter in 1928. Queen Elizabeth II was the patron until her death in 2022. The majority of members are registered nurses; however student nurses and healthcare assistants are also members. There is also a category of membership, at a reduced cost, for retired people.
The Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI) is a large teaching hospital. With a capacity of around 1,000 beds, the hospital campus covers an area of around 8 hectares, and straddles the Townhead and Dennistoun districts on the north-eastern fringe of the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. It was originally opened in 1794, with the present main building dating from 1914.
Ethel Gordon Fenwick was a British nurse who played a major role in the History of Nursing in the United Kingdom. She campaigned to procure a nationally recognised certificate for nursing, to safeguard the title "Nurse", and lobbied Parliament to pass a law to control nursing and limit it to "registered" nurses only.
Nursing in the United Kingdom has a long history. The current form of nursing is often considered as beginning with Florence Nightingale who pioneered modern nursing. Nightingale initiated formal schools of nursing in the United Kingdom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The role and perception of nursing has dramatically changed from that of a handmaiden to the doctor to professionals in their own right. There are over 700,000 nurses in the United Kingdom and they work in a variety of settings, such as hospitals, health centres, nursing homes, hospices, communities, military, prisons, and academia, with most working for the National Health Service (NHS). Nurses work across all demographics and requirements of the public: adults, children, mental health, and learning disability. Nurses work in a range of specialties from the broad areas of medicine, surgery, theatres, and investigative sciences such as imaging. Nurses also work in large areas of sub-specialities such as respiratory, diabetes, cancer, neurology, infectious diseases, liver, research, cardiac, women's health, sexual health, emergency and acute care, gastrointestinal, infection prevention and control, neuroscience, ophthalmic, pain and palliative, and rheumatology. Nurses often work in multi-disciplinary teams but increasingly are found working independently.
Sylvia Ernestine Denton (1941-2020), CBE, FRCN. Denton was one of the first Breast Care Nurses in the United Kingdom and President of the Royal College of Nursing from 2002-2006.
Dame Ellen Mary Musson, was Chair of the General Nursing Council for England and Wales. Her nursing career began in 1898. She served prominently at St Bartholomew's Hospital, West Smithfield, London.
Dame Kathleen Annie Raven, DBE, FRCN was a British nurse, matron, government health official, health care engineer, and educational philanthropist.
Theodora Turner, was a British nurse and hospital matron.
Dame Anne Marie Rafferty FRCN is a British nurse, academic and researcher. She is professor of nursing policy and former dean of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care at King's College London. She served as President of the Royal College of Nursing from 2019 to 2021.
Dame Catherine Mary Hall was a British nurse and nursing administrator who was a long serving General Secretary of the UK's Royal College of Nursing (1957–1982).
Andrea Spyropoulos, RGN, SCM, RNT, is a British nurse, clinical strategist and a past president of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).
St Leonard's Hospital is a hospital in Hoxton, London.
Betsi Cadwaladr, also known as Beti Cadwaladr and Betsi Davis, was a Welsh nurse. She began nursing on travelling ships in her 30s (1820s) and later nursed in the Crimean War alongside Florence Nightingale. Their different social backgrounds was a source of constant disagreement.
Winifred Emily Hector FRCN was an English nurse and textbook author. She played a significant part in introducing modern curriculum and teaching methods to British nursing education.
Eileen Skellern FRCN (1923–1980) was an English psychiatric nurse who was involved in pioneering psychosocial and psychotherapeutic methods for treating patients. She helped open up new roles for nurses in mental health work, and demonstrated that they could be equal partners in a team, taking personal responsibility for patient care while collaborating with doctors and playing an important part in new developments in therapeutic treatment. While also taking a lead in education, administration and policy development, she did research and published in medical and nursing journals, and was a member of key committees in her field.
Cecilia Akrisie Anim former president of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), and a clinical nurse specialist in sexual and reproductive health at the Margaret Pyke Centre in London.
Susan Elizabeth Manthorp Pembrey, known as Sue Pembrey, was a British nurse best known for her contributions to the development of nursing practice and to patient-centred hospital care.
Margaret Elwyn Sparshott was a British nurse. She was the principal matron of Manchester Royal Infirmary, and of the Territorial Force Nursing Service at Manchester, England. During the First World War, she used 2nd Western General Hospital as a base, and had the assistance of St John Ambulance, the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VADs) and the Red Cross. Within this framework she was responsible for the running of twenty-two large auxiliary hospitals, including the field hospitals for the war wounded, in Stockport, Salford and Manchester. Her duty extended to coping with increased patient numbers during the 1918–1920 flu pandemic.
Margaret Currie Neilson Lamb FRCN (1907–1992) was the first nurse to chair the General Nursing Council in Scotland.
Peggy Dina Nuttall OBE, OStJ, FRCN (1917–2008), as editor and later director of Nursing Times was one of the most influential nurses of the 20th century.